In Water Polo both Men’s and Women’s qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics formally got underway with the 2023 World Aquatics Championships (Fukuoka, Japan, 14-30 July 2023). The event was held in the Marine Messe Fukuoka, opened for the 1995 Summer Universiade, where it was used for gymnastics, as well as the volleyball finals. It was also used for the 1999 Asian Basketball Championship where China PR beat the Korea Republic 63-45 to qualify for Sydney 2000, the 2001 edition of this same championships (notable for Australian Ian Thorpe breaking four world records), and the early stages of the 2006 Men’s Volleyball World Championship, won by Brazil. The top two teams in each gender would qulaify for Paris.
On the men’s side, sixteen teams qualified for the event. The first would be hosts Japan, with two coming from the 2022 World League (which GB did not enter qualifying for). The top four in last year’s Worlds would also qualify, and GB did not qualify for that either. Three came from the European Championship, which GB also did not bother entering qualifying for, and the rest came from the other continents.
On the women’s, the system was basically the same for sixteen teams: the hosts Japan, two from the World League (GB didn’t enter), four from last year’s Worlds (GB didn’t qualify), three from the Euros (GB didn’t enter), the rest from the other continents.
However, despite water polo being dormant for years, it seems like British Swimming have decided to at least have a go at having a national team. According to their website, a body called the GB Water Polo Leadership group published a ‘framework’, and both the men’s and women’s teams have started playing again in 2022 and 2023.
It should be noted that in Paris, the men’s tournament has twelve teams, and the women’s has ten, so there are slightly different paths. On the men, as well as the two Worlds teams, hosts France qualify automatically, and then there are five continental championships. The qualification procedure still lists the hosts as Tel Aviv, Israel, and the date as 7-21 October. However, to save money it was moved to Netanya and to January, as then teams could go straight from there to Doha for the 2024 Worlds, thus leading to one stoppage instead of two. After war broke out involving that country, it was moved to Croatia, split between Dubrovnik and Zagreb, from 4-16 January. As well as original hosts Israel, the top eight teams in the 2022 Europeans (which GB did not enter) and seven qualifiers will enter. And GB actually entered a team for their qualifying group in Istanbul. They got thumped 28-0 by Serbia, 19-2 by hosts Türkiye, and 17-7 by Slovakia, but it was a great thing that British water polo would at least be represented. The final four spots in Paris are from the 2024 Worlds in Doha, Qatar (2-18 February 2024), and GB entered qualification for that, with the World Cup qualifiers in Romania, losing 16-2 to the hosts, 12-9 to Ukraine, 9-7 to Malta, and 15-4 to Germany. European teams could also qualify through the 2023 Worlds or 2024 Euros, which GB missed both of, thus confirming that the British men won’t have a spot in Paris.
For the women, again 2 spots were decided in Fukuoka, and hosts France also qualify, and again the winners of five continental competitions would get through. This event was also moved from Tel Aviv to Netanya, and then later to Eindhoven (Netherlands, 5-13 January). With hosts Israel and the top seven in the last event also qualifying, GB entered qualifiers. And not only did they qualify, they did so flawlessly, with wins over Germany (13-5), Portugal (14-12), and Finland (27-2). Best of luck to them.
It is a good thing to see British Swimming support water polo, as we know that their support has been growing not just for swimming and diving, but for artistic swimming as well, and it starting to yield results on the women’s side.
GB Games 